The invention relates to a modular vehicle roof, designed in particular for motor vehicles.
Such a vehicle roof is known, which is of a sandwich-type construction consisting of a roof skin formed of glass or of a transparent plastics material as the outer shell and an inner shell connected firmly therewith and molded from foamed plastics material, is produced separately from the vehicle bodywork and may be positioned with its outer edges on a bodywork frame and connected firmly therewith.
Such modular prefabricated vehicle roofs ready for installation are completed separately from the vehicle bodywork and only connected to the vehicle bodywork on the assembly belt in the automobile factory. Owing in particular to the considerable reduction in assembly time on the assembly belt, such vehicle roof modules are becoming increasingly popular.
In one embodiment of a known vehicle roof (DE 197 09 016 A1), a preassembled sliding sunroof unit comprising, for example, a sliding cover in the form of a glass cover, is incorporated into the roof module. The glass cover has a transparent surface area which is predetermined by the cover dimensions and is thus only limited.
An object of the invention is to provide a prefabricated modular vehicle roof of the above-indicated construction, which does not have a sliding sunroof unit incorporated in it but which nonetheless allows a view which may be screened off if desired.
According to the present invention, there is provided a modular vehicle roof for an automobile, the roof being of a sandwich-type construction and consisting of a roof skin formed of a transparent material as an outer shell having an edge region and an inner shell connected firmly therewith and molded from foamed plastics material; wherein the inner shell is molded in the manner of a frame and is provided only in the edge region of the outer shell, thereby forming a panoramic transparent surface, and wherein at least one sun-blind is arranged beneath the transparent surface, which is held on the inner shell by means of elements foamed into the frame-type inner shell.
The modular vehicle roof proposed by the invention provides for the inner shell molded from foamed plastics to be molded in the manner of a frame and to be provided only in the edge area of the outer shell made totally of glass or a transparent plastics material, thereby forming a panoramic transparent surface. This construction results in a transparent surface of comparatively large dimensions, such as cannot be achieved with transparent sliding covers in a sliding sunroof design. By arranging a sun-blind beneath the panoramic transparent surface, which blind is held on the inner shell by means of elements foamed into the inner shell molded in the manner of a frame, the transparent surface may be completely or partially screened by the sun-blind, such that the vehicle interior may be prevented from being heated up undesirably by intense sunlight and people outside the vehicle may be prevented from looking in. By foaming all the elements supporting the sun-blind into the frame-type inner shell, simple, operative pre-assembly of the roof module is achieved.
The sun-blind may be wound onto a winding reel arranged in a cavity in the rear frame part of the frame-type inner shell and passes through a gap between the rear frame part and the outer shell. With this advantageous arrangement the winding reel is not visible from the vehicle interior.
In order to be able to achieve virtually complete coverage of the panoramic transparent surface, it is provided for the width of the sun-blind plus the movement gaps on either side to correspond to the width of the panoramic transparent surface, wherein the sun-blind may be unwound from the winding reel at least in accordance with the length of the panoramic transparent surface.
To guide the sun-blind, a guide rail can be foamed into each of the two lateral frame parts of the frame-type inner shell, the two guide rails being arranged facing one another and displaceably guiding a front crossbar, to which the front end of the sun-blind is attached. Displacements of the crossbar in the two lateral guide rails lead, depending on the direction of movement, to a reduction or an increase in the blind surface area and thus conversely to an increase or a reduction in the panoramic transparent surface area. This infinite adjustability allows adjustment of the amount of incident light as desired.
The above-described installation of lateral guide rails provides the advantageous possibility of fitting carriers at the two ends of the front crossbar, which carriers guide the crossbar displaceably in the two guide rails and on which there act threaded cables guided in a compressively rigid manner in the guide rails, which cables are deflected into the front frame part of the frame-type inner shell and there engage with the pinion of a drive device for displacement movements of the crossbar.
The drive device may be a conventional crank drive, but preferably the drive device comprises an electric geared motor for the pinion, which is arranged in a cavity in the front frame part of the frame-type inner shell. With this arrangement, the drive device is also incorporated into the frame-type inner shell in such a way as to be invisible from the vehicle interior.